Patients with surgical ostomy operations are routinely provided with externally worn ostomy bags. Such bags commonly have openings or mouths that are adhesively sealed to the skin of the patient about the ostomy stomas. Such bags must be periodically removed and emptied, of course. The adhesive seal between the mouth of the bag and the skin surrounding the stoma must be maintained airtight to prevent the escape of embarrassing odors. Often, the skin area surrounding the stoma to which the adhesive seal is applied becomes tender and painfully irritated, which irritations may be compounded by contact with bowel contents and may lead to serious infections.
One solution to this problem is to eliminate the need for an adhesively sealed ostomy bag. My U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,765, for example, discloses a medical prosthesis that includes a drainage tube, the inner end of which is secured to the stoma of a patient deep to the fascia and the outer end portion of which is releasably sealed. It is yet desirable, however, to provide ostomy patients with appropriate bags to collect bowel contents, but means are needed to avoid the heretofore necessary adhesive seal between the mouth of the bag and the skin of a patient.